Terence Loves the Kids...

So I've been working at Upward Bound since November of last year. The reason why I applied for it is because its 10 bucks an hour from 3-6 Tuesday through Friday and 9-3 on Saturdays. So my thinking was, "Ok, imma get paid a good amount of money with hours that aren't crazy and all I gotta do is tutor kids in high school math...Simple" Nope. First off, I went through the craziest interview process for no damn reason. I friggin' had a three part interview where I spoke with the director, then take a cumulative final (No joke), then I had to pretend that I'm teaching the guy how to do some problems. I literally had a lunch break and I still had to come in early the next day to finish the whole thing. Any who... I caught the jack with that.

 Now on to the reason for this post all together. You see, this job started off with my MAIN concern being to tutor and get the hell outta there. BUT as time progressed, I started to develop relationships with the kids and I came to the conclusion that it aint only about the money... It aint only about the tutoring... Its about being a positive role model while assisting the students in there school work. You see, my job title is TM (Tutor/Mentor) so that means that its my job to help these kids with LIFE issues. I feel there's so much more shit goin on in these kids lives than just grades. Mind you, these kids/students (they hate when you call them kids) gotta go through an extensive interview process and they have to have pretty good grades just to get in the program; so their not dumb or crazy. 

So I now find myself not only asking, "What work you gotta do?" but "Hows life?" as well. Kids these days be going through some real shit. I mean those of you who heard Just Greg's kids at Philalive know these kids be going through some shit. So with that understanding and seeing how influential I can be to these kids motivates me to set the best example I can. For the longest I've been trying to set up like a little sit down and just talk about whats going on in their lives outside of school. Now you know kids these days think they're grown and that they have experienced everything there is to experience so I feel our job is to help them develop the right mentality to help them through the next step in theirs lives which is college. With experience comes knowledge and just think about ALL the shit we went through (and still is going through) in college. We (T/M's) have the advantage of KNOWING so why not pass that on as well as how to solve an Algebra problem...

I try to do my part. On saturdays I get together with my students outside of the program and play ball. I try to answer any questions they may have not just about academics but about personal issues as well. 

So to wrapp up my ramblings.... I've develop a new appreciation for my job. 

Terence Loves his kids...

Be Easy,

T